Coldstream officials aren’t sure why there were so many blank ballots.

During the Nov. 15 civic election, there were 188 rejected ballots, with 135 of those coming from the school trustee vote.

“A rejected ballot has been uniquely marked (anything other than an X) or not marked at all,” said Keri-Ann Austin, director of corporate administration.

“Typically you wouldn’t see numbers that high.”

Beyond the 135 rejected ballots for school trustee, there were 33 for the election of municipal council and 20 for the water borrowing referendum.

While it’s not known why there were so many rejected ballots, Mayor Jim Garlick has a theory when it comes to the election for school trustee.

“A lot of people weren’t sure (about the candidates) so they chose not to vote,” he said.

The Nov. 15 election results also show there were four spoiled ballots in Coldstream.

Spoiled ballots are those that are torn or where the voter made a mistake.